ature of the hotchpotch will be understood from a recital of some of
its contents, in their chronological order. It opened with an
introduction to the history of minerals, partly theoretical (concerning
light, heat, fire, air, water, earth, and the law of attraction), and
partly experimental (body heat, heat in minerals, the nature of
platinum, the ductility of iron). Then were discussed incandescence,
fusion, ships' guns, the strength and resistance of wood, the
preservation of forests and reafforestation, the cooling of the earth,
the temperature of planets, additional observations on quadrupeds
already described, accounts of animals not noticed before, such as the
tapir, quagga, gnu, nylghau, many antelopes, the vicuna, Cape ant-eater,
star-nosed mole, sea-lion, and others; the probabilities of life (a
subject on which the author plumed himself), and his essay on the Epochs
of Nature.

Nor did these concurrent series of books exhaust his boundless energy
and ingenuity, for in the five years preceding his death (1783-1788), he
produced his "Natural History of Minerals" in five volumes, the last of
which was mainly occupied with electricity, magnetism, and the
loadstone. It is true that the researches of modern chemists have
wrought havoc with Buffon's work in this field; but this was his
misfortune rather than his fault, and leaves untouched the quantity of
his output.

Buffon invoked the aid of the artist almost from the first, and his
"Natural History" is illustrated by hundreds of full-page copper-plate
engravings, and embellished with numerous elegant headpiece designs. The
figures of the animals are mostly admirable examples of portraiture,
though the classical backgrounds lend a touch of the grotesque to many
of the compositions. Illustrations of anatomy, physiology, and other
features of a technical character are to be numbered by the score, and
are, of course, indispensable in such a work. The _editio princeps_ is
cherished by collectors because of the 1,008 coloured plates ("Planches
Enluminees") in folio, the text itself being in quarto, by the younger
Daubenton, whose work was spiritedly engraved by Martinet. Apparently
anxious to illustrate one section exhaustively rather than several
sections in a fragmentary manner, the artist devoted himself chiefly to
the birds, which monopolise probably nine-tenths of the plates, and to
which he may also have been attracted by their gorgeous plumages.

As soon as t